Int’l migrants’ court finds 37 states guilty of modern-day slavery

THE first ever International Migrants’ Tribunal found 37 migrant-sending and -receiving States, ncluding the Philippines, guilty of perpetuating modern-day slavery on migrant workers.

The Tribunal was held at the University of the Philippines College of Law on November 28-29. It was attended by at least 300 delegates from the Asia Pacific, Europe, Africa, Australia, Latin America and United States.

The judges of the Tribunal were invited by the organizers Asia Pacific Mission for Migrants (APMM), International League of Peoples’ Struggle (ILPS), International Migrants Alliance (IMA) and the International Women’s Alliance (IWA) on the basis of their expertise, competence, probity, objectivity and independence to hand down a credible and judgment or verdict.

The Tribunal put into trial the Global Forum on Migration and Development (GFMD) and its neoliberal globalization design on migration. It examined cases of violations of migrants’ rights by States and featured the resistance of grassroots migrants against modern-day slavery.